Tag: Nigeria

No second-chance for second-hand businessman

I was a businessman working out of Lagos. I had opened a second-hand electronic appliances shop selling laptops, printing machines, photocopy machines, etc. I had traveled to Hong Kong many times to source these second-hand electrical appliances.

But my business faced a downturn because of the pandemic. I had to close down my shop but I owed creditors and did not have any means to settle the debts.

When I was arrested and sent to jail, I could not sleep and I kept on asking myself: How could I have been so stupid as to turn to swallowing drugs for trafficking knowing very well it is illegal and doing so came at great risk?

My creditor told me I could pay back my loan and also earn some money if I agreed to deliver goods to Hong Kong for his Argentine friend. I was told his friend could pay my debts and in addition, US$2,000 if I agreed to deliver drugs to Hong Kong. Continue reading No second-chance for second-hand businessman

Locked up, lockdown, locked up again

I am 47 years old and originally from Nigeria. I first came to Hong Kong in 2010 and was subsequently arrested for drug trafficking at the Hong Kong International Airport. I pleaded guilty to the charge and served my sentence until my release from prison in 2018. Since then, I have stayed in the city and lived as an asylum seeker.

In 2019, when the Covid pandemic struck, family and friends who were financially supporting me lost their jobs. Moreover, I used to earn a small amount of money helping people that came from Africa to buy second-hand electronics goods, but they stopped coming to Hong Kong because of the pandemic. I started having difficulty meeting my basic daily needs, and then in 2020, my girlfriend informed me that she was pregnant. This made the situation worse, and as a result, I began looking for help.

In desperation to earn money, I turned to some old clients whom I used to help since they couldn’t come to Hong Kong due to the pandemic. However, some of these clients reduced their orders because of lockdowns in their countries, and they couldn’t sell the previous goods they had ordered through me because their shops were closed.

Continue reading Locked up, lockdown, locked up again

The plight of a victim of a Nigerian drug ring

I am a domestic worker and I have been on remand for two years as a result of trusting a man from Nigeria who took advantage of me. These people only want to gain your trust so they can use you for their illegal activities. Unfortunately, I am not the only victim. Many Filipina and Indonesian women are also in prison because of this Nigerian ring.

I want to bring this to the attention of the Hong Kong authorities in order to warn them about this Nigerian ring. We all admit that we were foolish to trust them, but I believe that God will help us because only He knows the truth.

Continue reading The plight of a victim of a Nigerian drug ring

Victim of an elaborate mafia scheme

This is the story of how I came to be in custody by Hong Kong’s Customs for being found in possession of dangerous drugs upon my arrival at the Hong Kong International Airport on Saturday, October 6, 2018.

I’m a 64-year-old man from Honduras. I’m a professional in Social Sciences and Social Work with a Master’s degree in Public Health from the National University in Honduras. I’ve dedicated more than 35 years to the management, design, and implementation of social projects for poor families in my country. I did this work through NGOs and in close coordination with governmental programs.

In May 2018 I was contacted by the United Nations and the Central Bank of Nigeria (BCN) about the approval of some funds to work on social programs for the next seven years (2018-2025). The funds would be channeled through the UN which would pay the funds through the Nigerian Central Bank and the latter through the HSBC bank in Hong Kong. 

Before I traveled to Hong Kong I was informed I would need to go to Sao Paulo Brazil first to sign some documents (certificates of approval). I was sent the money for the journey.

Continue reading Victim of an elaborate mafia scheme

Future on sale

Warning! Warning!! Warning!!!

Time is too precious, use yours wisely. Open your eyes and ears, think carefully before you accept any offer of quick riches.

Almost everybody would jump at the kind of offer that can change their lives without much struggle. But I am here to advise you to STOP! – think carefully whenever such an offer comes knocking at your door. I am a big victim. I was deceived into bringing dangerous drugs into Hong Kong.

Continue reading

Three foreign men nabbed over HK$3.4M in drugs

The police said today they arrested three jobless foreign nationals from Nigeria and Ivory Coast, aged between 33 and 43 years, on suspicion of drug trafficking after raiding a room in a guest house at the Chungking Mansions in Tsim Sha Tsui yesterday.

Drugs including cocaine, methamphetamine, worth about HK$3.4 million, digital kitchen scales, and packaging tools were seized. Two of the suspects were subdued after they resisted, police said.

Source: The Standard

Chinese woman found not guilty of drug trafficking by Hong Kong court after three years of uncertainty

Li Dandan pulled her mother in a tight embrace as soon as she emerged from a Hong Kong court’s cell holding unit, free at last from a drug trafficking case hanging over her head for nearly three years.

Beside them stood prison chaplain Father John Wotherspoon, who had waited anxiously for Li’s release, having spent the past two years helping the Guangzhou native prove her innocence.

“I’m very happy,” he said tearfully after learning of Li’s acquittal. “I’m hoping her case can help the [other drug mules] appeal.”

Wotherspoon since 2013 has been working on a “name and shame” project, identifying and exposing drug lords operating through and in the city. His efforts came as he travelled the world to help drug mules facing trial.

The Roman Catholic priest claimed about 20 mainland women had fallen victim to African drug lords over the past decade – and Li was one of them.

On November 7, 2015, Li was intercepted at Hong Kong International Airport while en route to Malaysia to help deliver clothing samples for her Nigerian boyfriend, IK, who said he would set up business in her home province of Guangdong.

In a backpack she carried were 1,983 grams of crystalline solids stored in a hidden compartment sewn into its linings.

Hong Kong prosecutors said the single mother, now 33, had trafficked 1,934 grams of methamphetamine, a drug more commonly known as Ice, worth HK$580,000.

But Li told a different story: of a love scam in which she was conned into making deliveries for a man she trusted.

“I dated this Nigerian man because he did not smoke or drink. He struck me as a hardworking person,” she wrote in a letter to Wotherspoon in July 2016. “I could not believe he was a drug trafficker.”

She thought he was a real boyfriend.

Wotherspoon said Li was highly vulnerable in light of her divorce.

Source: South China Morning Post